Working From Anywhere Managing a virtual workforce during - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Working From Anywhere

Managing a virtual workforce during challenging times

Working From Anywhere

Managing a virtual workforce during challenging times

Managing Virtual Teams

• How to structure and offer "working from anywhere" to your workforce
• What do you need to think about to ensure that "working from anywhere" is a

success?

• Managing people and performance - what changes and what stays the same?
• How do you know how well the arrangements are actually working?
• What are the risks and opportunities?

Structuring Working From Anywhere

Building a robust system

Understanding the Context

Historically

• By exception
• Managerial

resistance

• Response to

individual special need

• Limited HR

support & guidance

• Policy low

priority Currently

• Real/ only

solution to business continuity

• New and

untested environment

• Operating in

the absence

• f a proper

structure

• Managerial

issues unresolved Future

• How will this

experience impact on your businesses ability to embrace future

• pportunities

to work from anywhere as an ongoing solution to

• perational

success?

Working From Anywhere (WFA) arrangements are a real solution to business continuity during this challenging time. This is a fundamental shift for most

• rganisations that have used it as

an exception to standard practices that apply to only a few staff.

Work from Anywhere Toolbox

• For work from anywhere to be

effective, you must take an integrated approach

• Adopting a work from anywhere

strategy is a significant cultural and work practice change

• Guidance and support needs to be

complete, streamlined and consistent

• Existing policies and procedures must

also be reviewed to ensure they support management of virtual teams as well as traditional teams

Existing Policies Gap Identification Consolidation and alignment

• f

comprehensive policy & procedure suite

Signposts to creating a WFA Toolbox

• WFA needs more than IT systems,

WH&S and security matters to work effectively.

• The guidance needs to set the

framework for how to work in a mode that is vastly different to traditional

• ffice-based arrangements.
• Managers and employees will be

seeking clarity on a wide range of connected issues.

Ensuring all relevant people management matters are properly considered

Options for Working From Anywhere

Communicating to managers and staff

Plan to Communicate – What? Why? When? How?

Understand the options and what you can do

• Be clear about what people can access
• Do not set unrealistic expectations
• Ensure the rationale is sound and

explainable

• Establish the operating parameters

first

• Be prepared to be flexible and

responsive to change

• Know what you are trying to achieve

and how you will check in on results Communicate openly and clearly

• Consider manager and employee

communication requirements collectively and separately

• Be prepared for questions
• Provide an avenue for support and

guidance

• “Keep your powder dry” – if you don’t

know for sure, don’t commit.

What is ‘Working from Anywhere’ and who can access it?

• What is ‘working from anywhere’ in

your organisation?

• What roles do you have that could

work remotely?

• Analysis of roles – some roles are

location based, others are not

• Understand existing people

management concerns

• What level of technological support is

needed for all identified roles to work remotely and is it available?

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

Why ‘Working from Anywhere’

• What is the business driver for implementing

WFA?

• Business continuity during COVID-19

pandemic

• Business viability
• Staff retention/ welfare
• What benefit will it offer employees?
• What benefit will it offer the organisation?
• How will this benefit be measured?
• What will happen if the benefits are not

realised?

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC

When will ‘Working from Anywhere’ happen?

• Is it ad-hoc, ongoing or for a

defined period?

• Is it something new or is it an

existing flexibility that you are looking to expand on?

• Is it limited to the current

COVID-19 pandemic or is it possible that this may become a longer term flexibility?

How will ‘Working from Anywhere’ work?

• How can employees access the scheme?
• How will managers ensure business
• utcomes are met?
• How will managers ensure adequate,

timely employee performance feedback

• How will facilities and the home office

be established and maintained?

• How will organisational and individual

WHS obligations be managed?

• How will office communications occur?

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND

Making Working From Anywhere a Success

Points for consideration

Understand the implications

• Just because change is not negotiable, doesn’t mean the

management issues disappear

• It remains critical for managers to be supported in their people

management roles and employees are provided with guidance on how to navigate increasing work and home pressures

• Employers need to identify current capacity to deal with

change – not only focusing on external services but also on enabling functions such as HR, IT & Governance

• How can these functions source extra advice or assistance

when needed?

• How will you deliver the assistance given the current

environment?

• Could a Help-Desk work?
• Know when to seek expert advice – the goal posts are shifting

almost daily Change is occurring at a pace, and in directions, that are unlikely to have been foreseen As a result, there is an urgent and important need to continue to deliver existing, as well as changed or new, outcomes and services

Communicate Communicate Communicate

• At least 3 key communication channels
• Within work-teams
• Across the organisation
• External clients and stakeholders
• Don’t wait to have all the answers before you begin – be ok with not knowing – this is like

nothing we have seen before

• Staff just need to know the lines of communication are open and they are being updated regularly
• Make sure there are constant ongoing channels for communication within and across

teams.

• Ensure managers are keeping regular contact with individual team members and looking for
• nline opportunities to gather collectively as a team
• Don’t forget your client/ customer/ consumer of your organisation
• Engage them in your decision making on the best way to continue delivering a service to them

Keep an Eye on Your Business Plans

Working from anywhere works best where business leaders, managers and employees are all on the same page Business plans - linked to corporate objectives - cascading into individual performance plans sets clear and unambiguous expectations at all levels

Managing People

What changes and what stays the same?

Rethinking People & Performance

• The standard operating model for work teams has, by and large, been built around co-location and

personal interaction.

• With this very familiar and long-term model being urgently and significantly shaken up by recent

unpredicted external factors, the way in which people and performance are managed efficiently and effectively needs to be carefully reassessed to determine whether it remains ‘fit for purpose’.

• We are already seeing a range of operating models being tried out, including:
• Closure of all offices and remote working only being adopted
• Rostering of employees through an office space to avoid large numbers – with those not rostered

into the office working from anywhere

• 50/50 splits of employees effectively ‘tag teaming’ across a working week
• Under any of these models, the traditional methods for managing people and performance won’t

work efficiently and effectively

Key People Management Issues

• Sudden interpersonal disconnection from the work team – without any obvious way to fill

the relationship-based void

• A loss of observational, direct, personal day to day performance feedback
• The disappearance of familiar workplace communication channels to test thinking and

validate ideas with co-workers and managers

• Lack of clarity about how work is assigned, reviewed and finalised
• How people and work-related issues are managed

(e.g. how employees are coping with changes to what they are doing, how and where their work is done and with whom.)

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Considerations for Change

How are the WFA vs office-based roles and responsibilities in the new operating model being determined?

• Wherever possible are assessments of the

roles, employees and work that might be best suited to WFA arrangements being properly taken into account before decisions are taken?

• Where it isn’t working, what support options

are available and being enacted?

Determining roles and responsibilities

Considerations for Change

What guidance and support is being given to managers and employees in terms of what stays the same with how people and performance management is being managed in a WFA setting?

Where there is no change…

Considerations for Change

Have your Executive team been provided a single, transparent and reliable reporting and analysis framework ?

• Does it regularly capture key people and

performance data ?

• Is it routinely used by the Executive team and

managers to understand ‘what, how and why’ employees and business areas are coping with the changed work environment. This can assist to quickly assess where performance is good, where it isn’t, the linkages to how people are coping with the organisational changes and

• pportunities to build confidence, share successes

and intervene early in the areas where people and performance might be struggling to cope.

Reporting & Analysis

Implementing People and Performance Changes

A suggested approach

Form a small team of HR, IT and experienced business managers to assess WFA opportunities and potential employee candidates – as well as employees and roles that might be better suited to remaining within the

• ffice-based

environment. Establish an

• rganisational view of

what stays the same and what changes under a WFA model. Then develop a clear and consistently communicated narrative that is shared with all employees. Don’t be afraid to adjust this over time – its better to explain changes than leave individual employees and managers to figure it out for themselves.

Measuring Success

How do you know how well the arrangements are actually working?

Current State Future State

Measuring Success

• It is critical to establish a way to regularly and consistently ‘take the

temperature’ of the workplace.

• Ensure that your people can let the organisation and its leaders know

what's working and what isn’t via a ‘single source of truth’.

• We suggest that this can be best facilitated via a simple, repeatable

and frequent (especially in the early stage of the WFA changes) on-line survey style tool.

• This survey style tool can quickly provide data to the organisation on

how people are coping, what's working well, what isn’t and an

• pportunity to share successes and address problems as close as

possible to ‘real time’. Gathering intel directly from the workforce

Why Conduct Surveys?

• Provides a single reference point to help manage people and performance that

consistently collects, analyses and reports on performance – rather than relying on multiple systems and processes, all of which were built for a different business model.

• Assists in monitoring WH&S and provides early opportunities to address any

unforeseen or emerging issues early – especially as they might relate to how employees and managers are coping with the changes to how work is done.

• Supports all employees and managers via a single communication mechanism

to enable issues to be raised, considered and addressed.

• A reduced risk for the organisation in terms of any potential disconnect
• ccurring between the reality of work as it is actually experienced by

employees and managers, and the perceptions of how the work is being done and how the business model is operating at senior decision-making levels.

Benefits to surveying staff

Further Measures for Consideration

Adjusted Business as usual outcomes delivered Employee health and wellbeing Regular, consistent clear and collective view on how the organisation is performing is used to guide decision making and communication

Risks and Opportunities

Risks

• Change inertia leading to slow/ no decisions

being made or ‘knee jerk’ reactive responses

• Isolation, disconnection, reduced job

satisfaction

• WHS
• Reduced performance
• Inconsistent application of industrial
• bligations
• Negative impact on workplace culture
• More agile governance and policy framework
• Establish and consistently manage, analyse

and respond to employee and management feedback

• Constant focus on planning and delivery and

how this is cascaded into individual tasks and activity

• Introduce new ways of accessing HR data,

services etc

• Sound understanding of industrial framework

and how it can support new ways of working

• Opportunity to build improved culture

through increased flexibility to better balance

• rganisational and individual employee need

Opportunities

If you would like to discuss any aspect of the ideas and issues raised, please contact one of the team. Contact details:

• Gary Champion – HBA Consulting www.hbaconsulting.com.au
• Mark Lewington – Agora Consulting www.agoraconsulting.com.au
• Chris Nightingale – Chris Nightingale Consulting

www.chrisnightingaleconsulting.com.au

• Grant Piazza – Piazza Research www.piazzaresearch.com.au
• Karen Edwards – Counterpoint Consulting

www.counterpointconsulting.com.au

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